The present invention relates to sputter targets and components used for sputtering. More particularly, the present invention relates to methods of forming sputtering targets as well as the sputtering targets resulting from the methods of the present invention.
There are a variety of ways to make sputtering targets from metals which generally involves taking a powder metallurgy product or a ingot-derived product which is generally in the shape of a billet and subsequently working the billet into the shape of the desired sputter target which many times is planar and circular. The means generally used to work a billet into the desired shape are various methods of forging which are rolling, hammer milling, extruding, upset forging, and the like. Generally, these methods are work intensive in that they take large amounts of time to work the material since these forging or milling operations are very labor intensive and take a great amount of time due to the necessary deformation that is involved. Furthermore, by using these type of forging or milling steps, a sputter target which is formed, generally requires large amounts of machining in order to obtain the desired close tolerances and good surface finish. In addition, the circular shape of the planar target is generally not exact and has a large variance, such as a variance of 10 to 15%, with respect to the variation in diameter around the target.
Thus, there is a need in the industry to overcome these disadvantages and provide a lower cost method to form sputter targets as well as provide a means to reduce the time necessary to form targets.